Wednesday, May 13, 2009

courtesy of lana labermeier, proprietor of big bear cafe here in bloomingdale, we have some photos of the interior of the commercial space at 1821 first street nw (the northeast corner of 1st street and seaton place in downtown bloomingdale—the link will take you to the listing on redfin.com).

there has been a lot of speculation regarding what could happen with this space. i've heard various stories of local residents or groups of residents wanting to put in a pizza place (which seems to be the standard bloomingdale rumor!), a deli, a bar (another go-to rumor until we finally get a bar), or even a taqueria. of course, someone's going to have to buy the place first, and do some substantial rehabbing before anything happens there.

now, in addition to the interior photographs, i promised exterior shots yesterday, and here they are, courtesy of my roommate nolan:

here's hoping something moves in that can utilize that great, wide space that's screaming for cafe seating on seaton place!

If ten of us got together and put $50K each in, bought and rehabbed the space and ran it as a neighborhood coop restaurant (aka Moosewood in Ithaca) we could have a nice little joint up and running pretty quick. And no outside financing required (since none is available).

My roommates and I are crossing our fingers for a bar. 250k doesn't seem that unreasonable, especially with all the other stuff now in Bloomingdale. Any entrepreneur would be smart to get in on this neighborhood while it's still relatively cheap.